Ese Oruru’s abduction is purely criminal not religious – Soyinka, Falana

Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka and human rights lawyer, Femi Falana have berated individuals masking the abduction of 14 year-old Ese Oruru with religion. 

They spoke on Sunday ‎at a press conference titled ‘Justice At Bay: The Long, Twisted Road to Ese’, which they jointly hosted.

The two eminent Nigerians said the matter was purely criminal and not religious, adding that, the perpetrator should be prosecuted so the victim could get justice.

“We should take religion out of Ese’s abduction. We are talking about criminality. Nobody should say people are Islam-phobic. We are only against criminality. Who invokes religion in criminal matters? Who brings religion into issues of government and constitution? If you want to bring religion into a criminal matter, then let us talk about other things. When we are talking about crime, don’t diffuse it with religion,” Soyinka.

Ese was abducted by Yunusa Dahiru, aka Yellow, a regular customer at her mother’s food shop, last year August, from Bayelsa and taken to Kano, where her parents said she was forced into child marriage having been converted to Islam without her consent.

Falana, on his part, said Yunusa, “the abductor, did not only violate Ese’s rights to religion as enshrined in Section 38 of the Constitution but also broke the laws contained in the Child Rights Act which Nigeria is a signatory.”